St. Agnes Catholic Church
5th Sunday in Easter
Cycle B
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042824.cfm
If you could be any plant what would you be? I often start my Theology classes at Assumption with a “check-in question,” a quick icebreaker that lets students share something about themselves. It’s a practice that builds community and ensures that everyone’s voice is heard at least once a day. When I read Jesus’ “I AM statements” in the Gospel of John, I like to imagine that he preceded it with a check-in question for his followers: What is your spiritual animal? If you could be any type of food, what would you be?
So, let’s turn to today’s—if you could be any plant what would you be? I think many of us would choose something might and huge like, a giant sequoia or California redwood. Perhaps you might choose a beautiful flower like an orchid or a sunflower. Or something unique like a Venus flytrap or a saguaro cactus.
Jesus rejects all these interesting options and tells us something unexpected. “I am the true vine,” he says, which seems a bit … underwhelming? Why a vine?
In preparation for this homily, I did several hours of yardwork last weekend. Our front yard is completely covered in ivy vines. The vines had begun to spill over onto the sidewalk and driveway, and were choking my wife’s flower garden. In the backyard, another strand of ivy had climbed all the way up a telephone pole and onto the wire. In attacking these vines, I was stuck by thick and heavy they are. The roots grow deep and form a dense patchwork of vegetation. With the proper conditions, a vine will spread and cover everything: the ground, trees, buildings, everything. Though the vine appears to be a humble plant, it is powerful.
The vine also has an important resonance for the people of Israel, who are frequently compared to a vine in Scripture. Psalm 80, for example, recalls God’s mighty work in the Exodus, saying,
You brought a vine out of Egypt; [LORD]
you drove out nations and planted it.
You cleared out what was before it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered by its shadow,
the cedars of God by its branches.
It sent out its boughs as far as the sea,
its shoots as far as the river.
By calling himself the true vine, Jesus is identifying himself as the nation of Israel. Psalm 80 goes on to lament that God has broken down the walls of this vineyard and allowed wild beasts to plunder it. Jesus has come to restore the vineyard and to nurse it to health.
The vine of Israel is not the ivy of my yard, instead, it is a grapevine, which is cultivated and pruned and bears delicious grapes, which are in turn harvested and fermented into wine. And in Jesus, we are part of this mighty grapevine.
In the two thousand years since Christ walked among us, the vine of the LORD has truly spread and covered the earth. There are 2.38 billion Christians in the world, nearly a third of world’s population. We live on every continent, speak every language, represent ever race and ethnicity.
We Christians are interconnected and interdependent. We are a part of a web of humanity. The Christians in India, in Ukraine, in Palestine, in St. Agnes, at St. Martin de Porres, all the parishes in our archdiocese, in Peru, they are my sisters and my brothers. We are part of one organism. It is easy in our culture of individualism to think of ourselves as independent and solitary. But underneath that, we are one. This should encourage us build the virtues of solidarity and charity.
The vine of Israel is not the ivy of my yard, instead, it is a grapevine, which is cultivated and pruned and bears delicious grapes, which are in turn harvested and fermented into wine. And in Jesus, we are part of this mighty grapevine.
People in antiquity had a strong sense of how to make a plant grow and to bear fruit and how much their own wellbeing depended on being a good gardener. In this metaphor, the God the Father is the gardener, who wishes for us to be fruitful and to bear good fruit.
What does it mean to cultivate ourselves like a vine? Or to allow God to cultivate us? How do you train yourself, your family, to bear fruit?
Maybe you are out in the garden during this spring season. I’d invite you to make that a time of prayer, to think of yourself as a plant in the hand of God.
Where is the dead growth? How might you be pruned to make for a stronger and healthier organism? What good fruit is the LORD training you to produce?
John tells us in his first letter that we can know that we are fruitful through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, which is expressed by our love for each other and for God. Our fruitfulness is rooted in Christ, the true vine, and his abiding love for us. As he says, “whoever remains in me in me and I in him will bear much fruit.”
It is the enduring love of God is the nectar or the life that lives in us. It is what nourishes us. It is the lifeblood of Christ that we receive in the Eucharist and that makes us one. So, let us go to the table of the LORD to renew our communion with him and with each other.
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